Student feared beheaded in cult war at College of Education, Ekiadolor, Edo State

On 12 July, a young man suspected to have been a student, was beheaded amidst renewed fighting between rival student cults at the College of Education, Ekiadolor, in Edo State.

Details of the clash in which the man was killed are not yet clear, but both community residents and students said they heard gunshots the previous night, before the head was found at a bus stop by the gate of the institution the next morning.

Witnesses said the severed head seemed to have had a machete cut and probably also a gunshot wound, suggesting that the victim must have been killed amidst armed violence, before he was then beheaded. Some students also said the fact that the severed head was left in front of the institution’s gate, with grass stuffed into the mouth, suggests it was deliberately kept there as “a message” to the rival cult.

The body from which the head was severed had not yet been found.

However, the Provost of the College, Professor Amen Uhunmwagho, told some newsmen that the school authorities were yet to ascertain whether the victim was actually a student of the institution or not. He said that task would be left to the police who had already started investigations. The police were said to have made several arrests, but had not yet issued any formal statement on the incident at the time of this report.

This is not the first time a student is being beheaded during clashes between rival cults in the school. In one incident on 30 April 2005, a final year student, Mr Osawe Igbinoba, was abducted and beheaded during a bloody fight between the Eiye Confraternity and Black Axe. The killers then burnt the severed head and similarly deposited it at the school’s gate.